GWAR

Sept. 13 • Bogart's

One of Rock & Roll’s prime directives has always been to raise the shock tolerance of the general population. Remember Elvis Presley’s hip ban on The Ed Sullivan Show? Jim Morrison showing the Lizard Prince to a Miami audience? Alice Cooper French revolutionizing his stage show with a guillotine? David Bowie fellating Mick Ronson's guitar? Wendy O. Williams carving a Boy George doll with a chain saw? Those crazy Death Metal church bonfires … with churches as the kindling?

GWAR makes all of them combined seem like a kindergarten macaroni art project.

In the GWAR mythology, Oderus Urungus and his Scumdogs of the Universe were cosmic plunderers banished to Earth millions of years ago after a failed galactic coup.

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Awakened by the toxic nature of the planet, GWAR’s mission is now the destruction of Earth, which the members hope to achieve by creating deranged Metal that will enslave their wretched fans and cause them to buy albums (like This Toilet Earth, Carnival of Chaos, We Kill Everything and their latest, Bloody Pit of Horror) and various other vile trinkets. It’s also designed to compel the minions to attend events like the annual GWAR-B-Q and gigs at the various Earthbound locales where they beam themselves to play their “instruments” in a “live” setting (after a million years, you’d think they’d learn to spell Cincinnati, but that’s another column …).

These mutated blobs of cosmic protoplasm have been poking humanity with their Metal schtick for nearly 30 years (since jolting from the space coma, anyway), and they don’t look to be slowing down, even after the death of Flattus Maximus last November. GWAR is hell … socialize, you human filth.

GWAR performs Thursday, Sept. 13 with The Casualties at Bogart's in Corryville. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.